Aronian Keeps on Winning in Wijk aan Zee

On Saturday Levon Aronian won yet again in round 6 of the Tata Steel tournament. The Armenian grandmaster beat Wesley So with the white pieces and increased his lead to a full point. Anish Giri and Sergey Karjakin are tied for second place. In the game between the two leaders of the Challengers Group, Baadur Jobava miraculously held the draw against Ivan Saric.

Levon Aronian is on a roll in Wijk aan Zee. In the 6th round the world's number 2 beat Wesley So, got his TPR above 3000 and his live rating to 2825.7 ("only" 46.3 points below Magnus Carlsen's). As so often, the Armenian made it look so easy! He showed his game in the press room and we're trying to get a video up, but in the mean time you can replay the game with his notes:

After an excellent first half, Anish Giri is still undefeated and is tied for second place with Sergey Karjakin. On Saturday the Dutchman was very close to beating Boris Gelfand in a Grünfeld:

Sergey Karjakin joined Giri in second place as he beat Arkadij Naiditsch in an Open Catalan. It seemd like Naiditsch tricked his opponent in the opening, because Karjakin spent a lot of time early on. However, it was well spent and White got a tiny edge in an IQP position with just heavy pieces. Normally that shouldn't be enough to win, but with Karjakin's splended technique and a Naiditsch not in top shape, it was 1-0 this time.

Hikaru Nakamura wasn't too happy with his play, but he got away with a draw as Black against Leinier Dominguez. The Cuban didn't shy away from the Berlin Ending's complications and he probably missed one or two chances for a big advantage.

Like Giri, Loek van Wely missed a win - in fact several. He really should have won this game against Rapport:

It was really a round of missed opportunities. Pentala Harikrisna got an ending with an extra Exchange, but failed to convert it against Fabiano Caruana:

Tata Steel 2014 | Masters | Round 6 Standings

#

Name

Rtg

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

0

1

2

Pts

SB

1

Aronian

2812

1

1

½

1

½

1

5.0/6

2

Giri

2734

½

½

1

½

½

1

4.0/6

9.25

3

Karjakin

2759

0

½

½

1

1

1

4.0/6

8.00

4

Dominguez

2754

½

1

0

½

½

1

3.5/6

10.00

5

Caruana

2782

0

1

0

½

1

1

3.5/6

9.00

6

So

2719

0

½

½

1

1

½

3.5/6

7.50

7

Harikrishna

2706

½

0

½

1

½

½

3.0/6

10.75

8

Nakamura

2789

0

½

½

½

½

1

3.0/6

7.25

9

Van Wely

2672

½

0

½

0

½

½

2.0/6

6.25

10

Rapport

2691

½

0

0

0

½

1

2.0/6

5.00

11

Gelfand

2777

½

0

0

½

0

½

1.5/6

12

Naiditsch

2718

0

0

0

½

0

½

1.0/6

xxx

The Challengers group saw an amazing game between the two leaders, Ivan Saric and Baadur Jobava. The way the Georgian GM held the draw with Black was pure magic.

Comments

Aronian is an appealing player - seems to be a really good guy. So many chess players are total dicks (though admittedly these days the top players seem to be nicer people than those of decades past).

This goes for Anish Giri as well - really bright kid, and a sporting and friendly character. I've learned to look forward to his reporting for New in Chess magazine. Too bad for him to have come of age in Carlsen's time - otherwise, he might have dreamed of being #1.

Speaking of which, in a recent game (Topalov-Morozevich, Beijing) annotated by Topalov for that magazine, Topalov accused Morozevich of resigning in a very rude way. It bothered him enough to mention it in the magazine. (Morozevich just walked away to look at some other games for 10 minutes and then signed the score sheet without shaking hands.)

Nakamura's tough in endgames, but he really pulled a rabbit out of his hat in his game with Leinier. I was watching the game live and thought, after 28.e6, Naka's done for. I mean, look at that bottled up rook on a8 and the passed pawns. Maybe white's pawn push to e6 was premature. It's hard to believe there weren't winning lines here for white.

Yeah Aronian seems like the player aside from Carlsen who plays closest to engine recommendations. It was great watching him find almost every move that Houdini found today. I'd love to see an Aronian vs. Carlsen WCC.

And one day, when Naka has ironed out some still apparent kinks in his game, I think he will post a serious threat to Carlsen as well simply because his style contrasts so much (tactical and middle-game oriented vs. Carlsen's positional and end-game oriented).

Wesley So seems very promising. But Aronian is just on fire now. He's back up to his peak rating, and looking like a strong contender for the upcoming candidates tournament. It would be amazing to see him in a WCC match with Carlsen, as both have been in top form of late.

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